More than three years later than the last blog post, I guess. To catch up a bit on this McD Workshop news blog, we’ve done a lot of fun work! The Steven Universe: Art & Origins book came out this summer and the BoJack Horseman: The Art Before the Horse book is scheduled to come out in 2018. Beyond that, more animation books are on the horiozon. I’m teaching animation at Moore College of Art & Design and The University of the Arts (see my new student work highlight reel). Speaking of students, I’ve hired a handful of ’em to assist me on some of the latest and greatest animation segments that we’ve produced, including work for Tour de Pharmacy (an HBO comedy special) and season two of Lady Dynamite (Netflix). Check out some highlighted clips of that work in the new McD Workshop animation reel or just see it here:

Months pass and we’re back with another mega post of McD Workshop updates. The Adventure Time: The Art of Ooo book that I wrote and designed has been published. One of the most in-depth reviews so far is over on ICv2, and here are some blurbed excerpts of other editorial reviews that I grabbed:

“This book is a deep dive into the Land of Ooo.”
(Boing Boing)

“The holy grail of the hit animated series Adventure Time. And you don’t even have to go to very distant lands. In fact, you can put in right on your coffee table.”
(Paste magazine)

“An extensive look at concept art, storyboards, early character sketches, background paintings, and the series’ show bible.”
(The LA Times’s Hero Complex Blog)

“Even if I didn’t love this series so much, I would still buy the awesome Adventure Time: The Art of Ooo, a beautiful 352-page large format tome that tells the series’ genesis.”
(Gizmodo)

“It’s fascinating seeing the show broken down into its purest form.”
(Kotaku)

“Fans of Adventure Time will basically lose their freaking minds.”
(io9)

“McDonnell deserves credit for producing such a worthy endeavor that encompasses nearly every facet of this multidimensional series. . . . this book cannot be recommended highly enough for diehard and casual fans alike of the show.”
(ICv2)

“…A stunning hardcover coffee table book that dives very deep into the production of this show. It’s an incredible resource for fans that is immaculately designed and thoroughly researched, and it features an introduction by Guillermo Del Toro to make it a little more high-brow than the usual coffee table book about a Cartoon Network show.”
(A.V. Club)

Another book that I designed came out recently too, Ozzy Inguanzo’s Zombies On Film: The Definitive Story of Undead Cinema.

Above, the variant cover for Uncle Grandpa #1 that I made came out recently from BOOM!

New! The Goal Achievement Club is Jenny, Ben, Jobina and I and friends that help us make videos. Check out the first video, Soxx’s Power Hour episode 01, “Urban Expressions” here:

Coming this Fall! The new book I wrote and designed for Abrams and Cartoon Network is called Adventure Time: The Art of Ooo, which is a decent description of its contents. It is a huge 352-page slab of an art book with detailed discussion inside from primary players in the show’s creation.

Also this Fall! I designed the book Zombies on Film by Ozzy Inguanzo, published by Universe!

Also right now! In the current 2014 animation reel, you can see work I did for Kroll Show, Comedy Bang Bang, and the new edition of Brody Stevens: Enjoy It! that I haven’t gotten into the portfolio here yet. Also work that I need to add eventually includes a comic book cover for BOOM! comics, animation work for a Comedy Central web show and animation for an upcoming Warner Bros Animation produced show.

Sad bears! Curtis Hatton is a musician who saw my old sad bear painting and commissioned me to make some new lost and probably sad, at least melancholy bears for his independent project entitled, “Lost Bear.” I made time-lapse videos of the process:

Sketchbook! These hardbound roughly-letter-size sketchbooks I have been using since high school take me about 3/4 of a year to fill if I’m going at a good pace. There are selections of new drawings from this current sketchbook now up over here. I have plans to go back through all my books and scan pieces from each. Expect to see a lot less from those early books!

As usual I didn’t get a chance to update this blog for half a year. I’ve been working hard on a lot of prime projects that I’m really excited to be part of. Above you can see the faces of some of the cool dudes whose projects I have been working on over the last few months. It’s the start of the fall semester so I’ll be back at UArts teaching my one section of Intro to Computer Animation soon. I’ve also been writing and posting on meathaus.com and cartoonbrew.com sharing work that I find extra tasty. It’s just got to have that special flavor.

It took a while but I finally grabbed a day and half and finished Ben‘s record art just in time for the last show the full band will probably play in their current line up this past weekend at Cha Cha Razzi. See the previous post on this project here.

Also I’ve been using this tumblr blog as more active blog including sketchbook work and “Lenny” comics as they roll out. I’ve recently started up more comics after a multi-month sidetrack into creating some Lenny animation development material, which is also continuing.

I recently wrapped up animation production on a segment for Comedy Bang Bang season 2 on IFC. More short animated segments appear to be on the horizon for television shows and a bit of educational software.

I’ve received copies of the two latest books that I designed for Universe and Rizzoli, The Science Fiction Universe… And Beyond: Syfy Channel Book of Sci-fi, and Variety: An Illustrated History of the World From the Most Important Magazine in Hollywood. Below is a snapshot of them on the floor and a video preview of the Variety book from author Tim Gray and Rizzoli.

Ancient bud Ben recorded a new record in a studio and I am sketching cover art for it. I’m surprising myself with this transition to digital in all parts of my process, slowly but surely. It’s like I don’t fully comprehend what’s going on but I can’t stop it. It’s like What’s Happening to My Body Book for Boys. Anyway, “Familiar Creatures” is the new record, and it is the one thing I am working on right now that I can share on this blog, beside my other personal project, Lenny. Here is a rough sketch and another tonal sketch on top of that in which I’m working out some ideas, both from this morning. (EDIT: Added another from this morning, the next morning.) Otherwise I can report that over the past few weeks I’ve also assistant animated for M. Wartella on his segments on MAD (Cartoon Network) and started a new project up with Vincent Stall‘s company, PUNY Entertainment.